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Surfware, Inc., developer of SURFCAM® CAD/CAM systems, will be demonstrating the upcoming release of its flagship product, SURFCAM 6, at the SolidWorks World 2012 exhibition to be held in San Diego, CA at the San Diego Convention Center from February 12 - 15, 2012.

SURFCAM has been a Certified SolidWorks CAM partner for many years, providing SURFCAM customers with world class precision and control over their NC programming environment when using SolidWorks design models in their shops.

SURFCAM’s powerful associativity enables programmers to open native SolidWorks files directly into SURFCAM, completely eliminating the translation process. When changes are made to the SolidWorks design models, SURFCAM automatically recognizes the design revisions and offers to regenerate the affected toolpaths. With this seamless interoperability between these two systems, SURFCAM users can quickly adapt to design changes and efficiently update their toolpaths.

The up and coming SURFCAM 6 release contains many new and powerful features such as:

Company owner Travis Perry is ready to seek funding in dangerous waters after two years of developing his guitar product. On Friday, the Alabama inventor will pitch his ChordBuddy Guitar Learning System to the ravenous business tycoons of ABC's "Shark Tank." Perry developed his product with help from Indiana rapid prototyping company Realize Inc.

Perry has taught guitar lessons to hundreds of students over the past 30 years. ChordBuddy fits on the neck of an acoustic or electric guitar. It is designed to help people learn to play guitar in as little as two months by pushing the colored buttons that correspond with different chords.

"The Realize team was a great partner to have during the development of the ChordBuddy," Perry said. "It was a bonus that they had a couple of guitar players on their staff and that allowed me to communicate my concept and requirements with ease. The series of custom finished rapid prototypes they quickly produced for me really helped accelerate the ChordBuddy's journey to production."

Products often begin as just an image in an innovative mind. In the case of ChordBuddy, it started with Perry's dream to create an easier way to play the guitar -- and his phone call to Realize, Inc.

Realize creates custom rapid prototypes of products for clients in numerous industries. The ChordBuddy project was a little out of the ordinary in that a typical Realize client is a mid-to-large established company, said Realize President Todd Reese.

"When Travis first contacted me, we spoke in depth about this idea he'd had for years. I could sense his passion and we immediately connected," Reese said. "When the conversation ended, it felt as if I had just spoken with an old friend. I knew that Realize would be a great fit for what Travis wanted to accomplish."

Perry called Reese one evening in 2009 and asked if he was familiar with playing guitar. Having played guitar for a decade and with one even propped up at the end of his office desk, Reese proved eager to help Perry create his envisioned product. He connected Perry with Troy Mason, owner of Impulse Product Development, who performed CAD design work for the ChordBuddy. Realize performed Stereolithography and custom finishing and painting services. Multiple versions of the ChordBuddy were produced as Perry evaluated and critiqued different designs leading to the final design.

Now, Perry is ready to pitch to a true shark's den of investors including billionaire Mark Cuban, the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks; and entrepreneur Daymond John, founder and CEO of the FUBU apparel empire.

So can Perry swim in dangerous waters -- or will he get eaten by the sharks? Find out at 8 p.m. EST this Friday on ABC.

The USA Science & Engineering Festival hosted by Lockheed Martin offers a special appeal for budding entrepreneurs, inventors, engineers and programmers who will find the ideas, tools and resources to help them make their dreams a reality. From robotic technology to amazing desktop manufacturing technology that makes prototype development easy and cost-effective, the “makers” and innovators of society will find a wealth of inspiration throughout the Festival and Expo, as well as in the Robot Fest and DIY Expo pavilion, where creativity and technology meet.

“The Festival is a fantastic place for technical experts of all kinds to learn about the amazing advances that have been made in technology to help them make product prototypes from 3D printers, find designs online for parts and components, and meet an array of experts to help them bring their product ideas to life,” said Larry Bock, serial entrepreneur and Executive Director of the USA Science & Engineering Festival— the nation’s largest celebration of science and engineering that will take place April 28-29, 2012 in Washington, D.C. “If you’re an inventor or entrepreneur looking for inspiration, the Festival will be a wealth of ideas and the DIY Expo will provide the tools to get your ideas in motion.”

Organizations like MakerBot Industries, Fab Lab DC and Fab@Home by Cornell University and Dassault Systèmes Americas will show prospective inventors how they can develop product prototypes with 3D printers and digital fabrication. Sparkfun Electronics will show participants how to bring new product ideas to life more easily and inexpensively than many of us may have thought was possible, through electronics and microcontroller kits. The Festival will also feature an array of robotic technology ranging from military, manufacturing and surgical robots to more entertaining robots like R2DC’s Star Wars droids and other exhibits that allow attendees to build their own robots.

In addition, budding entrepreneurs will be able to network with members of various “hackerspace” groups who work collaboratively to network, socialize and develop technical solutions and new products in their spare time, simply because they love to tinker with new ideas, create something from nothing, and solve problems. The Baltimore Node, Unallocated Space and HacDC are three hackerspace groups participating in the DIY Expo and will show some of their recent projects like the HacDC spaceblimp. Unlike the more malicious forms of hacking, the hackerspace model is borne of an interest in collaboration, shared knowledge and tools to create and innovate.

“One of the most intriguing developments in the world of American innovation over the past few years has been the advancement in collaborative ‘crowdsourcing’ to make it easier for ideas to become reality by working together with like-minded individuals,” said Gary Mauler, founder of Robot Fest and host of the Robot Fest and DIY Expo pavilion at the USA Science & Engineering Festival. “The ‘hackerspace’ groups that have come together across the country are providing volunteer assistance to the defense industry and cyber-security industry, and they are now making an impact on assistive technology for individuals with disabilities, fashion and many other industries,” he added.

The Festival also features a Book Fair where some of the leading authors and experts in the DIY world will speak, including William Gurstelle, author of The Practical Pyromaniac, a professional engineer and has been researching and building model catapults, ballistic devices and flamethrowers for more than 30 years. His previous books include the best-selling Backyard Ballistics, among others.

“The USA Science & Engineering Festival is an amazing place for engineers and DIY enthusiasts to see what’s new and innovative in the world of science and technology,” said Gurstelle. “I can’t imagine anyone in my field who wouldn’t find it to be a tremendously inspiring event, full of creative fuel to spark that next great idea or invention.”

Dustyn Roberts, author of Making Things Move: DIY Mechanisms for Inventors, Hobbyists and Artists, will also appear at the Festival. Roberts is an engineer who started her career at Honeybee Robotics working on the Sample Manipulation System project for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission. She is the founder of Dustyn Robots where she consults on projects ranging from gait analysis to designing guided parachute systems.

“I’m looking forward to this year’s Festival to find out what all of the world’s leading innovators have developed to demonstrate the wonders of modern science and engineering,” said Roberts. “I’m particularly excited to see the array of female innovators who will be sharing their expertise and inspiring young girls to consider a career in the science, technology, engineering or math fields.”

The USA Science & Engineering Festival and Book Fair is a free, family-friendly event that allows kids and adults to participate in over 2,000 hands-on activities and see more than 200 live performances by science celebrities, explorers, best-selling authors, entrepreneurs and world-renowned experts. For inventors and others looking for ideas and information, the Festival offers a smorgasbord of scientific and technological wonders that will entertain as it inspires the American spirit of innovation.

The USA Science & Engineering Festival is the country’s only national science festival, and was developed to increase public awareness of the importance of science and to encourage youth to pursue careers in science and engineering by celebrating science in much the same way as we celebrate Hollywood celebrities, professional athletes and pop stars. Lockheed Martin is again the presenting host of the USA Science & Engineering Festival and is joined by many other Festival sponsors and partners. The USA Science & Engineering Festival is a grassroots collaboration of over 500 of the United States leading science and engineering organizations.

PolyFlex Products, Inc., Livonia, MI, is moving its headquarters and manufacturing operations to a 50,000 square foot facility in Farmington Hills, MI. Mark Kirchmer, PolyFlex, CEO, stated “our continued growth during the past decade had forced us to have operations in multiple facilities. This new facility allows us to consolodate everything under one roof while providing additional room for future expansion.

“We recently increased our overall injection molding capacity by 30% and also doubled our foamed urethane capacity with the addition of a new RIM machine. Moving forward, this new facility provides the expansion room needed for our forecasted growth.” he concludes.

Monetizing on Patents and Ideas, Patent Rights Group Inc. of Toronto Canada (PRG) Announced Today the Launch of Phase 1 of Their Aggressive Patent Acquisition Strategy. Inventor's and patent holders are invited to discuss their options for monetizing their innovations.

Innovation is accelerating at unprecedented levels and Industry now recognizes that intellectual property rights are valuable and strategic assets that can yield significant revenues when properly licensed or sold. Nortel auctioned off 6,000 patents for $4.5 billion, Disney paid $4.2 billion to acquire the rights to Marvel Comics, and IBM generates over $1 billion annually in licensing revenues.

"Ideas matter and their values are at an all time high. Patent owners need to act now and participate in this campaign to take advantage of favourable market conditions." said Tony Canapini, PRG's President and CEO. "PRG is committed to stimulating, incubating, licensing, and defending the intellectual property rights of individuals, entrepreneurs, or any enterprise that can benefit from using our services."

PRG is an expert in realizing value from patents. In this campaign, PRG will assume all risk and manage all legal and administrative matters when monetizing patent rights, and revenue generated by PRG will be shared with the patent owners. By working with PRG, everyone benefits; Inventors are financially rewarded for their ideas, Entrepreneurs receive funding to start their businesses, Small and Medium Enterprises can leverage incremental cash to grow or take advantage of market opportunities, and Innovation Labs can realize positive returns on their research and development investments.

Investors can also benefit by contacting PRG because as PRG's patent asset base grows, so does its market value. As a fast growing, private company with a business model that leverages easily, PRG welcomes inquiries from investors interested in a company with a bright future.

Founded in Toronto, Canada in 2010, Patent Rights Group Inc. is an intellectual property management company that buys, sells, licenses, and defends patents. We focus on inventors, entrepreneurs, small and medium sized businesses, non-profit enterprises, and innovation labs in Canada and the US. Our markets include, but are not limited to Mobile, High Tech, Health Care, and Green Energy.

With its roots reaching back to 1938 and founded in 1965, the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) is the world’s oldest, largest, member-driven society for industrial design. IDSA represents professionals in product design, interaction design, human factors, ergonomics, design research, design management, universal design and related design fields. The society produces the renowned International Design Excellence Award® (IDEA) competition annually; hosts the International Design Conference and five regional conferences each year; and publishes Innovation, a quarterly journal on design, and designBytes, a weekly e-newsletter highlighting the latest headlines in the design world. IDSA's charitable arm, the Design Foundation, supports the dissemination of undergraduate and graduate scholarships annually to further industrial design education. The organization has more than 3,000 members in 29 professional chapters in the U.S. and internationally.

3D Engineering Solutions has added another dimension to their 3D laser scanning services with the acquisition of a structured light scanning tool, the Steinbichler Comet L3D, which uses LED blue light technology and can capture up to two million points in 1.5 seconds. 3D Engineering has already used the new technology for turbine blade and impeller inspection, and mold and tool making. The structured light scanner is useful in applications such as 3D scanning, quality control, tool making, reverse engineering, rapid manufacturing and design.

3D Engineering Solutions Vice President Rob Glassburn said, “It’s unusual for a company to have the full range of tools we have to cover different component sizes and accuracies. The Steinbichler tool is great for capturing anything with a lot of sharp edges and detail—even small medical instruments.” 3D Engineering can integrate photogrammetry with the structured light scanning, which increases ability to measure larger parts. “We can capture entire vehicles,” said Glassburn. “We can get accuracies as small as .0003 inches.” In addition to the photogrammetry accessory, 3D Engineering has a 2-axis integrated turn table, which allows for automated inspection.

In addition to increased portability of equipment, benefits of structured blue light scanning over structured white light scanning include a longer-lasting light source and lower temperature influence due to LEDs, the ability to scan a well-lit room, and the ability to filter out other light present when capturing an object. “This technology is about 3D data acquisition with a lot finer detail and greater resolution—especially when working with small parts,” said Glassburn.

Customers rely on 3D Engineering Solutions to design process tooling and fixtures for the automotive, industrial, green energy, nuclear and aerospace industries, using engineering tools such as Unigraphics NX7 Mach 3 CAD platform. Leading edge point cloud software, InnovMetrics PolyWorks, allows a common software platform for collecting data across all of Faro laser-based data collection platforms. In addition to reverse engineering services, 3D Engineering Solutions is registered with the State of Ohio for Professional Engineering and ISO 17025 Certified for third party inspection. In their sixth year of operation, the company maintains a state-of-the-art, climate controlled metrology lab, servicing the Midwest OEM needs for 3D laser scanning, data collection, 3D CAD modeling, FAI / PPAP inspection, and reverse engineering services. 3D Engineering Solutions brings more than 100 years of collective experience to every engineering project.

Entrepreneurial inventors and can-do manufacturers will have the opportunity to meet, swap ideas and join forces in what's being dubbed the new "manufacturing revolution" at the Inaugural Manufacturing EXPO: Putting a Face on Manufacturing, Feb. 14 and 15, 2012, at The Galleria in Downtown Cleveland.

The first-of-its-kind event will bring inventors face-to-face with about 175 exhibitors representing just about every aspect of manufacturing. More than 3,000 attendees from across the United States and Canada are expected. Eight regionally and nationally renowned speakers will share their manufacturing-specific insights, including information on the potential impact of the new America Invents Act.

At The EXPO, inventors will find themselves in an elite category with some of the region's and the world's most significant manufacturers, according to Mary Kaye Denning, founder and president of The Manufacturing Mart, creators of The EXPO. "Where else but at this EXPO can you display your invention next to the latest ideas brought forth by NASA?" Denning asks.

The EXPO will feature a designated pavilion for North American inventors called "Design: Protect: Package: Ship." Booth prices are $550 and allow for up to two inventors per booth. Inventors will also have the opportunity to enter the Export Experiment, which is open to inventors with new and exciting ideas.

Hotel accommodations can be made at the Hampton Inn in Downtown Cleveland for $79 per night. The EXPO is sponsored by Penton Media, The City of Cleveland, StudioTh!nk and The Galleria at Erieview.

The A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park and Stratasys, Inc., announce the successful design, fabrication, and test of a Webbed Tube Heat Exchanger (WTHX), believed to be the first plastic heat exchanger made by additive manufacturing. Fabricated at the Stratasys facility in Eden Prairie, Minn., the 3D-printed WTHX promises to expand the potential applications of polymer heat exchangers to small production volumes and cost-constrained systems.

The WTHX represents the first time that a plastic heat exchanger has been manufactured through Stratasys' Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM®) technology and used to successfully transfer heat through a polymer structure from a hot gas to a cold liquid. Room air, heated to 120 degrees Celsius was cooled by building water at 27 degrees Celsius, transferring nearly 65W of heat in the 500 cubic centimeter heat exchanger.

Juan Cevallos, a Ph.D. candidate and research assistant in the Thermal Management of Photonic and Electronic Systems (TherPES) Laboratory at the Clark School's Department of Mechanical Engineering, was responsible for testing the WTHX. Under the direction of Professor Avram Bar-Cohen-along with Professors S. K. Gupta, David Bigio, and Hugh Bruck-Cevallos has been working in collaboration with the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi to advance polymer heat exchanger technology for seawater cooling of liquified natural gas processes, among other applications. The relatively high tool and assembly costs of low-volume polymer molding production led Bar-Cohen's research team to select an additive manufacturing technology that could build complex geometries in a single step. Stratasys' FDM technology provides that capability while using some of the strongest and most heat-resistant thermoplastics found among additive manufacturing technologies.

The WTHX geometry consists of a stack of rectangular flat plates, each containing an array of tubes that span the length of the plate and are separated by short webs. The tubular array carries the water, while the air flows in the gaps between the rectangular webbed-tube plates. The diameter of the tubes is selected to reduce the power required to pump the liquid while creating a "bumpy" surface on the gas-side that enhances heat transfer between the gas and liquid streams. Moreover, most of the heat transfer occurs directly across the thickness of the WTHX tubes, minimizing the deleterious effect of the low thermal conductivity of the polycarbonate resin.

The Clark School of Engineering, situated on the rolling, 1,500-acre University of Maryland campus in College Park, Md., is one of the premier engineering schools in the U.S., with graduate and undergraduate education programs ranked in or near the Top 20. In 2011, the Clark School was ranked 11th in the world by the Institute of Higher Education and Center for World-Class Universities in its Academic Ranking of World Universities. Three faculty members affiliated with the Clark School were inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2010.

The school, which offers 13 graduate programs and 12 undergraduate programs, including degree and certification programs tailored for working professionals, is home to one of the most vibrant research programs in the country. The Clark School garnered research awards of $171 million last year. With emphasis in key areas such as energy, nanotechnology and materials, bioengineering, robotics, communications and networking, life cycle and reliability engineering, project management, intelligent transportation systems and aerospace, the Clark School is leading the way toward the next generations of engineering advances.

Media Corp has become the official sponsor of the ICKC National inventors contest held in Kansas City. The ICKC contest was created by the Ewing Kauffman Foundation and is a nonprofit organization with over 1,000 members. Media Corp will offer a $20,000 testing package to the winner of the contest.

The ICKC National Invention Contest is looking for inventors to submit their inventions for a chance to win a commercial produced for Direct Response television (DR-TV). The complete package which includes a TV spot to be aired in select markets for product testing is a prize worth $20,000. If successful, the winners invention would generate thousands of dollars in royalties for the inventor.

Ed Waldberg, President of Media Corp. says "We are pleased to be the primary sponsor of the ICKC National Invention Contest. This contest provides inventors of all types to have a chance to win a DR-TV spot that could literally change their lives if the product is a success. DR-TV is still the best and quickest way to get your product to market. In our industry the right product and speed to market is the key to success."

Typically an inventor will spend in excess of $10,000 to produce and air a commercial. "Going it alone is expensive and time consuming. The ICKC National Invention Contest is an opportunity like none other," says Carrie Jeske, Marketing Director for the Inventors Club of Kansas City. When inventors submit products to the ICKC National Invention Contest they should consider the seven most important criteria for DR-TV product success:

1. Does your product have a unique selling advantage? In other words how does your product stand apart and does it have a "wow" factor?2. Problem/Solution/Benefit Orientation. The bigger or more common the problem solved?the more the product sells!3. Does your product appeal to the masses? TV reaches a very broad demographic, if your product appeals to the masses you have a winner.4. Product Pricing. Typically products under $100 are considered good short-form DRTV items.5. How demonstrable is your product? The better the visual demonstration of the product the greater the chance for success.6. Is your product believable? Will people believe your product will work?7. Is your product easily explained? Consumers must be able to understand what the product does in a relatively short amount of time.

If you have an invention and you think that it meets the seven criteria to make a DR-TV winner then submit your product today at: www.inventorsclubofkc.org

Capture 3D's GOM ATOS series of industrial optical 3D scanners provide accurate scans with detailed resolution at high speeds. ATOS delivers 3D measurement data and analysis for industrial components such as sheet metal parts, tools and dies, turbine blades, prototypes, injection molded parts, castings, and more. Instead of measuring single points or with a laser, ATOS captures an object's full surface geometry and primitives precisely in a dense point cloud or polygon mesh. ATOS is widely utilized in various industries, and can measure different object sizes, surface finishes, and shape complexities.

The new ATOS Compact Scan provides accurate scans with detailed resolution at high speeds. This modern 3D scanner combines the latest ATOS Blue Light Technology and software into a compact design with an affordable price. Manufactured with high-quality components, this lightweight and compact sensor ensures ultimate adaptability for various applications and environments, especially in narrow and confined areas. Quickly measure and inspect castings, design models, forms, injection molded parts, interiors, prototypes, vehicles, and much more.

We live in a world fueled by creativity, innovation, and competition. When product ideas are born, the world of engineering gives it life. The tools and technologies we use on a daily basis are a critical factor to achieve success. Capture 3D is a leader in 3D metrology solutions since 1997. From aerospace, automotive, consumer goods, power generation, entertainment, medical, to a variety of other industries, we improve product development through manufacturing and maintenance processes. Products include 3D scanners, portable CMMs, inspection, automation and robotic solutions.

ModernTech, the leading value-added reseller of 3D CAD and Engineering Technology for manufacturers in the Southeast, has opened a new office in Charleston, South Carolina. The new office is on Daniel Island, a strategically-situated, award-winning planned community is located at:

“Our presence in the Carolinas enhances the opportunity to expand in the Southeast and allows for us to have a large footprint in the coastal areas as a reseller of SolidWorks and Objet. We are very excited about discovering and getting to know the Charleston business base,” says Jon Carlton, Vice President of ModernTech.

ModernTech provides solutions to solve the toughest mechanical design and engineering problems in industries such as Aerospace and Defense, Consumer Products, Electronics, Medical, Manufacturing, and many more. In addition to offering a variety of 3D technology products, ModernTech also provides training, support and services to customers across the Southeast and beyond.

“We are delighted ModernTech has made a decision to expand operations to Charleston,” said Charleston Mayor, Joseph P. Riley, Jr. ”As Charleston’s high-tech manufacturing economy expands, the leading-edge tools provided by ModernTech will become a great asset to our businesses.”

ModernTech’s expansion to Charleston was facilitated by the City of Charleston’s Digital Corridor initiative. An open house at the new Charleston office is being scheduled and more information will be made available soon.

Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, ModernTech provides engineers and designers with 3D technology and training for the entire product development lifecycle —Design, Analysis, Data Management, Tech Publishing, 3D Prototyping and Scanning. Our solutions help engineers and designers in any industry meet the demand for innovative, high-quality products in less time and at lower cost.

Konica Minolta 3D Scanning Labs announced today its new rapid prototyping service. The company is now offering 3D printing services with the addition of 3D Systems' Projet™ HD 3000 3D Production System. The Projet™ is ideal for a wide-range of applications including concept development, design validation, form and fit analysis, molding and casting patterns, investment casting of jewelry and other fine feature applications.

In addition to the new rapid prototyping service, 3D Scanning Labs offers high-accuracy 3D scanning and metrology, onsite 3D scanning, reverse engineering to native CAD formats, and dimensional inspection. The new addition of 3D printing services opens up an array of possibilities for prototype testing and development for advanced engineering, manufacturing, and jewelry applications.

"Many of our customers need prototypes," states Jim Clark, Business Manager at Konica Minolta 3D Scanning Labs. "Brining this technology in-house allows us to better serve our customers' needs throughout the duration of their projects. The high quality parts produced by the Projet are ideally matched to the high quality, high detail 3D scan data our equipment produces."

The Projet™ HD 3000 3D Production System offers the option of two modes, High Definition (HD) and Ultra High Definition (UHD), for applications ranging from prototypes and concepts to direct castable models. For direct castable models of fine jewelry and other components, the UHD mode is unmatched in its ability to handle delicate features and produce detailed parts and patterns. The high speed and exceptional surface quality of the standard HD mode is ideal for a wide variety of applications including concept development, design verification, form-fit testing, and product presentations.

OrthoCare Labs was preparing to move into a new manufacturing facility when it contacted Derek Woodham, a Georgia Tech regional manager who serves west Georgia companies. The collaboration that resulted helped the company expand its sales by more than $1 million per year, add seven jobs, save nearly a quarter million dollars -- and make a big investment in the LaGrange, Ga. community.

The seven-year-old company, which makes custom orthotics -- shoe inserts -- for athletes, diabetics and others, is now poised for additional growth.

"We would not have been able to grow at the rate we have grown if we were still making our product the way we did before Derek helped us," said Dr. Ric Hollstrom, the company's owner. "Derek helped us change the complete flow of our process to make it smoother."

Orthotics are by their nature custom products. Physicians make molds or take three-dimensional measurements of patients' feet, then send the casts or data to OrthoCare. The company's first production step is to carve a wooden replica of each patient's feet using a precision router. From a variety of orthotic-grade polymer sheets, the devices are then vacuum-formed around the replica feet, finished and packaged for shipping.

Prior to the move, Dr. Hollstrom's five staff members produced the orthotics in a departmental-type flow, in which one person was responsible for each aspect of the production, and would pass the products on to the next department in batches. This batch process created the potential for quality issues, and sometimes order confusion, because hundreds of individual products had to be kept separate.

"One of the issues was consistency of our product," said Dr. Hollstrom. "Maintaining consistency when each product was custom-made was difficult. It was also difficult to judge if the required consistency was there every time."

Woodham, who is part of Georgia Tech's Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP), visited the company's old facility to learn the production process and talk with the staff. He listened to Dr. Hollstrom's concerns and heard his interest in adopting lean processes, which systematically reduce wasted time and resources. And Woodham understood the company's potential for growth.

What he recommended was a complete change in the organization of the manufacturing process. Instead of producing the orthotics departmentally and in batches, Woodham recommended creating flow cells in which a small team works together to complete products in one continuous operation.

Because a pair of orthotics could be made by the same group of workers in a continuous process, quality issues could be identified and addressed immediately. Having fewer products in process reduced the potential for mix-ups. In the new system, most orders were completed and shipped in a single day, besting the old process, which could take a week or more.

"The flow cell creates a better communications path from the beginning to the end," explained Woodham. "It's easier to keep up with custom orders because you don't have a large number of products waiting to be completed."

For a fast-growing company, switching to manufacturing cells also had an important benefit: production could be ramped up simply by adding cells following the plan Woodham designed.

"The company felt an urgency to get this right before they moved into their new facility," he explained. "Our work was a matter of understanding their processing steps and developing what would be the best layout for the equipment and the best way for the staff to work together."

Dr. Hollstrom said the flow cells allowed the company to expand production from approximately 80 sets of orthotics per day to 250 -- a more than 200 percent increase. The improved product quality reduced the number of products returned by the doctors ordering them, and faster turnaround time increased customer satisfaction.

The improvements also caught the attention of a company that sells footwear for people who have diabetes. That customer has already sent some business to the company, and is discussing the possibility of expanding its orders. If that happens, OrthoCare's sales could again grow dramatically, putting as many as 25 more people to work.

Dr. Hollstrom believes that growth can be accommodated without changing the processes Woodham established. He'll just add more workers and cells.

Not surprisingly, he is pleased with the work done by Georgia Tech and Derek Woodham.

"We added more than a million dollars worth of business to the company as a result of Derek's work," Dr. Hollstrom said. "Derek always told me what I needed to know, even though I didn't always want to hear it. For instance, I thought batching was better than the cell process, but he timed it and convinced me otherwise. What we are doing right now works very well."

The Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP) is a program of Georgia Tech's Enterprise Innovation Institute and is a member of the national MEP network supported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The GaMEP, with offices in nine regions across the state, has been serving Georgia manufacturers since 1960. With a broad range of industrial expertise, the GaMEP helps manufacturing companies across Georgia grow and stay competitive. It offers a solution-based approach through technical assistance, coaching, education, and connections to Georgia Tech, industry and state resources designed to increase top line growth and reduce bottom line cost.

A record amount of plastic injection molding and extrusion equipment will be available on the market over the next three weeks during live webcast auctions conducted by Great American Group, LLC (OTCBB: GAMR), a leading provider of asset disposition, valuation and appraisal services, involving four plants formerly operated by Fortis Plastics, LLC.

Great American Group, working in conjunction with The Branford Group, has scheduled the first auction to begin at 9 a.m. (CST) Tuesday, Jan. 17 for the Fortis plant in Jackson, Tenn. Some of the items initially up for auction include 38 molders and plastic support equipment.

“There will be more than 600 lots offered up during our first auction,” said Roy Gamityan, a senior vice president and auctioneer with Great American Group. “In all, we’ll be selling assets from four separate plastic plants that will involve more than 130 injection-molding machines, 20 extrusion lines, computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine tools, and several forklifts. It’s a large auction sale for this type of equipment and should be a good test to see how strong the market is within this industry sector.”

Subsequent live webcast auctions are planned for Fortis’ other plants located in Fort Smith, Ark. (9 a.m. CST Jan. 19), South Bend, Ind. (9 a.m. EST Jan. 31) and Poplar Bluff, Mo. (9 a.m. CST Feb. 2). Interested parties can inspect the items at each plant location the day prior to each auction.

The clamping force of the injection presses available range from 50 to 1,000 tons. Gamityan says the larger-tonnage machines are expected to attract special attention from buyers, since a recovery in the automotive sector has reduced the number of the larger, used injection molding equipment available on the market.

Available extruders include Cincinnati and Davis-Standard, and the auctions also include robots, auxiliary equipment and tool room equipment.

In consolidating its operations, Fortis Plastics has closed a total of nine plants since Monomoy Capital put the business together in 2008. In 2011, the company announced plans to close four plants along with its corporate headquarters in South Bend by the end of the year.

Manufacturing Executive, the global community for manufacturing leadership, today announced that Dr. Ronald A. Heifetz, co-developer of the Adaptive Leadership concept, will provide a special keynote at the eighth annual Manufacturing Leadership Summit, taking place April 29-May 2, 2012, at The Breakers in Palm Beach, FL.

Dr. Heifetz, co-founder of Cambridge Leadership Associates and founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, developed the Adaptive Leadership idea with Marty Linsksy, a Harvard colleague. In his keynote on April 30, entitled "The Future of Leadership", Dr. Heifetz will discuss the concept of Adaptive Leadership, which provides critical skills and tools to enable leaders not only to respond but thrive in the face of changing global forces.

Earlier this month, the Manufacturing Leadership Council, a part of Manufacturing Executive, and Cambridge Leadership Associates announced a partnership to deliver a new leadership development program to Council Members. Called Leading Adaptive Change in Manufacturing, the program is the subject of an explanatory Webcast to be held on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at 11 am EST. Interested manufacturers can register for the Webcast by going to www.mlcouncil.com/adaptiveleadership.

Other keynote session topics and speakers confirmed for the 2012 Summit are:

The Manufacturing Leadership Summit is an invitation-only event that enables senior manufacturing executives to network and share lessons learned. Through the event's 2012 theme, "The Future Manufacturer: Change the Rules, Rule the Future," the Summit will explore the ways manufacturing organizations must change to meet the demands of the future. These include leadership mandates for managing in an increasingly dynamic global market; the impact of greater collaboration on decision-making processes; new business models centered on work and production; build-to-demand supply chains; advanced workforce skills; and the megatrends of social media, mobility, and cloud computing.

One-on-one networking meetings, group discussions, and social activities such as the VIP Golf Tournament will provide ample opportunities for attendees to interact, all set against the backdrop of The Breakers' spectacular 140-acre beachfront property.

The Summit will culminate with the 2012 Manufacturing Leadership 100 Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony, at which Manufacturing Enterprise Communications honors the top 100 groundbreaking companies in the industry. This year also marks the expansion of the ML100 program to include four new individual leadership achievement awards spanning entrepreneurship, next-generation leadership and culture, turnaround success, and industry advocacy.

Intergraph® has released its newest product, Intergraph CADWorx® DraftPro™, an intelligent AutoCAD®-based plant design package, and is offering it free to the plant design and engineering community. Built on the company’s CADWorx Plant Professional package, which offers full 3D intelligent plant design, live collaborative database links, automatic isometrics and on-the-fly collision checking, CADWorx DraftPro enables designers to quickly and efficiently create intelligent, specification-driven 2D plant and piping plans, sections and elevations, with full bill of materials capabilities.

CADWorx DraftPro shares the same piping specifications as CADWorx Plant Professional, providing access to more than 60,000 parametrically driven components delivered via hundreds of piping specifications, which are easily modifiable via an intuitive specification editor. Users of CADWorx DraftPro can easily upgrade to CADWorx Plant Professional by migrating or carrying over their existing piping specifications.

Figures shared by Autodesk®, the developers of AutoCAD, state that between 500,000 and 1 million seats of AutoCAD are currently used in the plant creation space. A recent Intergraph survey of plant design users indicated that, apart from P&IDs, 91 percent of them use AutoCAD as their main 2D plant design platform. Also, only 27 percent of respondents used any intelligent tools to deliver their 2D deliverables.

“For 2D plant users the choice has typically been between unintelligent 2D design and intelligent 3D modeling,” said Rick Allen, senior vice president, Intergraph CADWorx & Analysis Solutions. “The release of CADWorx DraftPro lets us empower 2D AutoCAD users, projects and work groups, with technology that we have had for a while, but was always tied to our 3D offering. By releasing this capability, at no charge, we introduce users to the power of intelligent plant design and provide them with a natural upgrade path to 3D when they are ready.”

Gerhard Sallinger, Intergraph Process Power & Marine president, said, “Since the acquisition of the CADWorx product line by Intergraph in 2010, sales of CADWorx have risen to record numbers, proving its value in the market place. CADWorx is an effective AutoCAD-based plant design solution completing billions of dollars of successful projects. The release of CADWorx DraftPro reinforces our commitment to all levels of the plant creation, operations and maintenance sectors of the industries that Intergraph serves.”

Bodymetrics, a pioneer in 3D body-mapping, announces a new era of personalized retail and in-home commerce experiences. In retail Bodymetrics technology digitally maps a person's body allowing them to find perfect fitting clothes before they try them on. In the near future Smart TVs will have the capability to body-map customers and order perfect-fitting clothing in their own homes, thereby reducing returns and beginning the end of the era of the online sizing chart.

Utilizing PrimeSense 3D sensor solutions, Bodymetrics carefully calculates and maps every contour and curve of the body. Once a Bodymetrics account is created, users can virtually try on garments from partner retailers to determine whether a garment fits and flatters their body.

Until very recently, body-mapping required expensive body-scanners. With the advent of the 3D sensors by PrimeSense, this technology can be installed at any clothing store, big or small, and is also inexpensive enough to be integrated into future Smart TVs.

Jonathan Hull, Vice President Emerging Experiences at Razorfish, says, "What consumers want are incredible digital experiences that are connected across channels. We are very excited to work with Bodymetrics to help pioneer this new era of retail and personalized TV commerce. It doesn't get more personal than having your body scanned in-store or ordering clothing from your TV, knowing that it will fit perfectly."

Hull adds, "More than 90 percent of customers still shop at stores for clothing. Now they can get scanned in-store, share their looks with friends on Facebook, and continue to shop at home through their TVs, PCs, tablets and mobile devices."

Bodymetrics' pioneering solution, designed to body-map a customer's exact body-size and shape to the exact dimensions of a garment, has a successful seven-year track record in retail at Selfridges in London, voted as the world's best department store.

Bodymetrics makes buying clothes quicker, easier and more fun, both in-store and online. For most people, buying good fitting clothing is a trial-and-error, time-consuming process. Human bodies are different in a million ways, but when clothing companies produce garments they make them to fit an average person. In the real world, however, there is no such thing as an average body.

"When you walk into a clothing retailer or browse an online fashion site, they have no idea of your body size, shape or style," says Suran Goonatilake, CEO of Bodymetrics. "Bodymetrics body-maps you within a few seconds and gets hundreds of accurate measurements and analytics of your shape. Then, we match this data to the exact dimensions of a garment and allow you to virtually try it on your own body to see whether it is too tight, too loose or just perfect."

Although the online clothing market is the largest e-commerce category, worth $30B in the US, it is still a small part of the total US clothing market of $370B. This contrasts with nearly half of computers sold online and the virtual disappearance of physical travel agents that sell airline tickets. The key reasons are that customers lack confidence in buying clothes online, and there is too much hassle associated with returning garments back to the retailer if they do not fit. Depending on the type of garment, up to 50 percent of garments sold online are returned -- an enormous financial cost to the retailer and a process that takes a huge environmental toll due to shuffling of garments back and forth to warehouses.

"With body-mapping, sizing charts and hand-measuring yourself will also become history," says Lainey Sheridan-Young, head of fashion at Bodymetrics. "Because there are no standards in fashion sizing, your size can vary dramatically from brand-to-brand and from country-to-country. Add vanity sizing, where brands give smaller size numbers to garments to boost customer self-esteem, and you have complete confusion. What we need is a simple way to map clothing sizes from one brand to another, from one country to another, based on your body. Bodymetrics will do this," adds Sheridan-Young.

Bodymetrics will preview its 3D body-mapping technology at the 2012 International CES in Las Vegas, January 10 – 13. Visit Bodymetrics at PrimeSense's New Living Room Experience at Booth #30242, South Hall 3, Upper Level.

Bodymetrics makes buying clothes in-store or online quicker and more fun. The company develops 3D scanners that carefully calculate your size and shape, and allow you to virtually try-on garments on your body to determine whether they fit and flatter you. Once you have created your Bodymetrics account, you can then shop at partner retailers with the confidence that garments you choose will fit and suit your body-shape. The company's 3D-mapping technology builds upon technology developed by PrimeSense, a leader in 3D sensing. Bodymetrics is a London-based, privately-held company that has raised $7m in funding, primarily from its strategic partner, TAL Group (www.talgroup.com), one of the world's largest and most advanced clothing manufacturing groups. Bodymetrics' partner retailers include the London based department store Selfridges, voted as the 'world's best department store', and New Look, a global clothing retailer. For more information, please visit www.bodymetrics.com.

CCE, a leading engineering software and services provider announces the release of EnSuite 2012 with support for latest versions of NX, SolidWorks and Parasolid files.

The new release enhances the Viewers and Translators in EnSuite to support NX8, SolidWorks 2012 and Parasolid 24 version files without requiring a license of the respective CAD systems. With CATIA V5 R21 support added in the previous release, EnSuite meets all major translation requirements of the industry.

The viewers have also been enhanced to Show/Hide components in assembly files, an option has been added to select or define a default standard view orientation that is more suitable for the user & the usability of Draft and Undercut analysis features has been simplified.

EnSuite provides quick access to critical engineering information residing in CAD data, no matter which CAD system was used to author it. It’s extremely user-friendly interface is designed for users who may not be trained in using CAD systems, but need to access CAD data for their day-to-day work. EnSuite supports all major 3D CAD formats including CATIA V4, CATIA V5, NX, Creo, SolidWorks, Parasolid, JT, CGR, STL, Solid Edge, 3D PDF, IGES and STEP.

Morris Technologies, Inc. (MTI) has purchased an Arcam A2 electron beam melting (EBM) machine. MTI is the global leader in additive-metal manufacturing, and this acquisition enhances their arsenal of product offerings by making the EBM technology available to their customers in aerospace, medical, and other industries.

The Arcam A2 builds functional metal parts layer by layer using metal powder. The powder is melted by a powerful electron beam to the exact geometry dictated by a 3D CAD model. Parts are built in vacuum at elevated temperatures resulting in stress-relieved parts with material properties better than cast and comparable to wrought material.

The acquisition of the EBM additive manufacturing machine will offer advantages to MTI's customers. "The Arcam A2 is a complementary technology to our existing DMLS additive manufacturing machines and will allow us to offer additional capabilities and solutions for our customers," says Greg Morris, CEO of Morris Technologies. "Coupled with our extensive, world-class machining and finishing technologies, we believe that we can offer cost and time savings for a number of customer geometries and projects."

The Arcam machine will be installed at MTI's facility and ready for manufacturing in January 2012. Initially, Morris Technologies will be focusing on building geometries from titanium (Ti 64). They plan ongoing testing of other alloy powders and will introduce other options as appropriate.

Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, Morris Technologies, Inc. (MTI) has been on the cutting edge of manufacturing technologies since 1994. MTI's heavy investment in research and development has enabled them to evolve into the global leader in additive-metal manufacturing processes and advance technologies by offering new materials and developing new hardware. MTI also specializes in end-to-end product development, from engineering to prototyping to low-volume manufacturing.

Advantage Business Media has acquired Vicon Publishing, Inc. of Amherst, New Hampshire effective January 1, 2012. Going forward Vicon Publishing will be renamed Vicon Business Media, Inc. and operate as a subsidiary of Advantage Business Media, LLC.

The new subsidiary, Vicon Business Media, consists of six brands in three distinct niche markets: Controlled Environments Magazine®, covering all aspects of cleanroom manufacturing, ALN® Magazine and ALN World™, known worldwide as the authoritative voice in laboratory animal facility magazines, and Forensic Magazine®, covering a wide spectrum of forensic disciplines including related technologies, industry trends, and solutions. Rounding out the Vicon offerings is the weekly publication, DFI News Digital Forensic Investigator®, which covers incident response and analysis; digital evidence and the law; forensic analysis for mobile devices; and event reconstruction and case studies. In addition, Vicon hosts the annual TurnKey Conference, which focuses on Laboratory Animal Facility sectors and Laboratory Animal Medicine.

“We are excited to bring the history and strength of Vicon’s brands into our portfolio,” Reiff said. “Their knowledge and experience will enhance our expertise in the Science arena.”

Reiff also noted that the Vicon business will continue to operate in New Hampshire.

Vicon is the second acquisition Advantage Business Media has completed in the past few months. In May, the company acquired Continuity Insights, a magazine and trade show business focusing on continuity risk management planning.

Advantage Business Media is an integrated business media company with a diversified portfolio of highly focused print publications, e-newsletters, specialized directories, vertical search databases, conferences, ancillary media vehicles, and associated web-based services. Founded in 2006 with the acquisition of Reed New Business Publications and building upon a 45-year combined legacy of influential Cahners, Chilton, and Gordon Publishing titles, today Advantage Business Media serves more than 1.3 million industry professionals in the science, engineering/design, electronics, and communications markets.

The University of Dayton will be part of a three-year, $2.4 million grant from the Kern Family Foundation to develop ways to educate engineers to contribute to the entrepreneurial cultures of their companies.

"We all know the term 'entrepreneur,' but we want to develop 'intra-preneurs' as well," University of Dayton Innovation Center Director Ken Bloemer said. "While entrepreneurs create their own companies, an intra-preneur works within the framework of an existing company as a change agent driving business growth."

Dayton will team with lead-partner Baylor University, University of Detroit Mercy and Villanova University, and their industry partners, to build a curriculum that will help students better understand intrapreneurship and provide hands-on opportunities to put the practice in place. Possible courses include an in-depth study of intra-preneurship, innovation in a corporate context, a seminar series, an intra-preneurship-focused opportunity evaluation and a venture-planning course and workshop.

The end goal is to form a Helping Hands Dense Network, which will change the culture in the way engineers are educated and create practicing engineering graduates who are technically competent, and innovative and business savvy.

"The Kern Family Foundation is eager to support this joint initiative of four prestigious universities that desire to work together to change engineering education for the benefit of their engineering students," said Dr. Timothy J. Kriewall, program director for the Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network (KEEN) "Their graduates will be effective team players who will be entrepreneurially minded and who will be able to deploy technology to benefit people around the world."

This is the second boost for entrepreneurial education and engineering for the School of Engineering in the last year. Almost exactly a year ago, University of Dayton graduates O. Jack Anderson and his wife, Opal, gave more than $600,000 to create a new faculty position to enhance the entrepreneurial spirit among engineering students and faculty. The new fellow will lead the growing partnership between the School of Engineering and the School of Business Administration to prepare students to better design products for society. The position also will work to provide additional entrepreneurial and product design learning experiences university-wide.

University of Dayton School of Engineering Dean Tony Saliba said it's important for the University to produce engineers who embrace entrepreneurship and interact effectively with business professionals in order to develop innovations that can succeed in the marketplace.

"It's important we produce job creators rather than job seekers," Saliba said.

The Kern Family Foundation has said the University of Dayton is "best-in-class in project-based learning in engineering innovation education."

Since 1996, University of Dayton engineering students have worked on more than 600 projects for 120 clients. Seven teams of engineering students have finished in the top five of the School of Business Administration's Business Plan Competition in the four-year history of the competition. One team has taken home the top prize.

3Shape A/S, a user-acclaimed worldwide leader in 3D scanners and CAD/CAM software solutions, announces the launch of CAMbridge™ 2011, an innovative solution that automates the manufacturing of CAD designs. With this latest CAMbridge™ 2011 release, 3Shape is providing dental labs and manufacturing services with new levels of productivity through innovative features for efficient milling and 3D printing of even complex dental restorations. 3Shape CAMbridge™ is also being successfully applied in an important variety of other industries, including Orthodontics, Hearing Instruments, and the production of industrial parts.

New and improved milling path engineCAMbridge™ has been updated in its automatic generation of sprues (connector pins) to support production of 3Shape's latest dental design indications such as Removable Partials and Lab Models. Additionally, new milling features include support for multiple milling directions with both adding and editing of milling directions. 3Shape has improved the milling path for finishing surfaces and added a dedicated hole-making milling path based on spirals.

Objet Geometries Ltd, a leading provider of manufacturing solutions for the Dental industry, integrates 3Shape's CAMbridge™ in their systems.

"We have found the new CAMbridge™ software to be a perfect integration for both DentalSystem™ software, and our 3D printing systems," Says Avi Cohen, Head of Medical Solutions at Objet. "The new CAMbridge™ delivers unique capabilities, such as built-in support for handling Quality Control in dental lab production environments, a range of options for creating ID-tags, and grouping of items and advanced placement with a unique setting for Objet dental users. It is for this reason that we highly recommend CAMbridge™ to our large dental users' install base.""The new CAMbridge™ is not only a powerful and efficient tool - but in our vision it is a must for all advanced dental lab owners," concluded Avi Cohen.

Extensive Tool Manager3Shape has introduced a new tool manager that allows users to maintain total control over tools and tool siblings during milling. The system alerts users regarding tool-usage, the need for tool replacement, and where tools should be inserted.

Enhanced functionality for supportsCAMbridge™ 2011 contains an impressive range of new Supports options and improvements. Not only has the system's Supports generator been enriched with more speed, but users will benefit from many user-friendly options, such as Supports along ridges and minimum extent of foundations (Braces).

Built for efficient processingBesides the wide array of new features, the CAMbridge™ 2011 release provides a boosted platform for more efficient processing and added power for handling the large amount of data involved in CAD/CAM manufacturing processes. CAMbridge™ supports multiple large files and parallel processing of up to 10 items using the CAMbridge Assistant™.

"Our new CAMbridge™ 2011 CAM software solution integrates smoothly with DentalSystem™ 2012," explains David Fischer, CAMbridge Group Manager. "CAMbridge 2011 has been enhanced with many special features for Dental manufacturing, such as flexible methods for hollowing and creating wall thickness for dental and orthodontic models."

The new CAMbridge™ 2011 release is now available today. Users who wish to benefit from this opportunity should contact their local 3Shape CAMbridge distributor.

The inaugural Manufacturing EXPO, Putting a Face on Manufacturing, is prepared to change the way manufacturers, design engineers and purchasing agents view production and product selection. On February 14-15, 2012, more than 3,000 industry-related professionals from Canada and the United States are expected to gather at The Galleria in Downtown Cleveland to gain insights and build important relationships the old-fashioned way: through in-person contact.

More than 175 exhibitors will be showing off their know-how at The Manufacturing EXPO, and some of the most established names in manufacturing will be sharing valuable information with attendees. At the same time, this is designed to be an intimate, easily accessible event, one in which manufacturers, design engineers and others experts in the industry can realize first-hand how impressive and vital manufacturing continues to be in North America.

"The Manufacturing EXPO will harken back to the days of the International Expositions," says Mary Kaye Denning, president and founder of The Manufacturing Mart. "Attendees will be able to stroll the aisles and meet with the faces behind some of the world's most impressive products. Likewise, exhibitors will have the opportunity to see up-close what others in the industry are doing. This is a chance for everyone in the manufacturing arena to realize how proud they should be of what they are producing for North America and the world."

Among the exhibitors already signed on for The Manufacturing EXPO is Beverage Machine & Fabricators, a provider of custom metal-working services for the medical, food processing, construction, heavy machinery, steel, energy, military defense and waste disposal industries. Beverage Machine & Fabricators has a 100-year history and is a fourth-generation family business in Cleveland. The company boasts a 35,000-square-foot workshop, a 25-ton lifting capacity and highly skilled craftsmen.

Another exhibitor at The Manufacturing EXPO is Atlantic Tool & Die. This global manufacturer of precision metal stampings, welding and value-added assemblies has facilities in Alabama, Ohio and Texas, as well as in China, Costa Rica and Mexico. Atlantic Tool & Die's international presence illustrates the breadth of manufacturing opportunities available to manufacturers with the know-how to exceed expectations.

In addition to a growing list of exhibitors, The Manufacturing EXPO will lend a voice to industry experts who understand current trends and ongoing challenges in the marketplace:

Mr. Roger Kilmer, Director of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership of the National Institute of Standards & Technology

Ms. Birgit Matthiesen, Special Advisor to the President and CEO, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters

The Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, Intl. (FMA) invites manufacturing executives to join its new Green Manufacturer Network, a professional organization of individual members working together to drive the transition toward environmentally friendly manufacturing.

“The mission of the Green Manufacturer Network is to be the principal resource to advance sustainable manufacturing,” said Edward Youdell, president and CEO of the FMA. “By joining this network, executives throughout the entire supply chain can learn practical strategies and affordable measures to run sustainable operations, as well as discover new business opportunities in the green marketplace.”

Members of the group receive discounts on conferences, workshops, and webinars; helpful event announcements and topical discussions; as well as access to sustainability resources.

“In a recent FMA member survey, 51% of respondents indicated their company has a committed sustainability program with dedicated staff and performance metrics,” said Jim Warren, FMA membership and education director. “An additional 38% of respondents indicated their company was moving toward full commitment to sustainable practices. They’ve recognized that being green directly impacts the bottom line in a positive way. Further, good environmental stewardship sends a powerful message to current and potential customers of one’s dedication to sustainability in their communities.”

Members will be able to share knowledge on sustainable manufacturing and promote awareness that going green can increase profitability while forming valuable contacts with other green leaders through volunteer and educational opportunities.

Based in Rockford, Ill., FMA is a professional organization with nearly 2,300 members working together to improve the metal fabricating and forming industry. Founded in 1970, FMA brings metal fabricators and fabricating equipment manufacturers together through technology councils, educational programs, networking events, and the FABTECH® trade show. FMA also has two technology affiliates, the Tube & Pipe Association, International (TPA), which focuses on the unique needs of companies engaged in tube and pipe producing and fabricating; and Green Manufacturer Network, a professional organization of individual members dedicated to working toward environmentally-friendly manufacturing.

The editors of IndustryWeek have selected 10 honorees for the 2011 class of the IW Manufacturing Hall of Fame. IndustryWeek is the premiere publication serving executive and operations leaders in the manufacturing industry. IndustryWeek has a long history of acknowledging the leaders of manufacturing operations through distinguishing programs such as the IW 50, IW 500 and IW Best Plants.

Through the IW Manufacturing Hall of Fame, IndustryWeek now is extending recognition to individual leaders in the manufacturing community whose vision, leadership, and legacy not only provided value to their individual organizations but also beneficially impacted the larger business community and our society. IndustryWeek is pleased to highlight their accomplishments to our audience of manufacturing leaders.

The IW Manufacturing Hall of Fame is presented by Swagelok.

John Brown – As president and CEO of Stryker Corp. from 1977 to 2003 and as CEO from 2003 to 2004, Brown transformed a small Kalamazoo, Mich.-based manufacturer of hospital beds and cast cutters into one of the world's largest medical-device makers, with a portfolio of more than 55,000 products. During Brown's 27 years at the helm, Stryker achieved average annual earnings growth of 22%. Since January 2010, Brown has served as chairman emeritus of Stryker, which reported revenue of $7.3 billion for 2010—its 31st consecutive year of revenue growth.

Daniel DiMicco – As chairman and CEO of Nucor Corp., DiMicco not only is the leader of the nation's largest steelmaker but also has become a leading voice of the American steel industry and American manufacturing. DiMicco was named president and CEO of Charlotte-based Nucor in 2000, shepherding the company through a period of unprecedented growth as well as the harrowing recession of the late 2000s (during which Nucor hewed to its no-layoff philosophy). An outspoken critic of China's alleged steel dumping and currency manipulation, DiMicco has helped keep fair trade on the forefront of the public-policy agenda.

Armand Feigenbaum – Feigenbaum's work and ideas helped lay the foundation for the concept of total quality control. When the American Society for Quality (ASQ) named Feigenbaum an honorary board member in 1986, the society acknowledged him for a career in which "the precepts of total quality control were carefully laid out and tirelessly promulgated in the United States and around the world." The author of "Total Quality Control," Feigenbaum also is a pioneer in quality cost management, and the ASQ notes that his book "was the first text to characterize quality costs as the costs of prevention, appraisal, and internal and external failure."

Raymond Floyd – During his 42-year career as an executive and operations manager at ExxonMobil, General Motors and Suncor Energy, Floyd has helped some of the world's largest industrial sites and global multi-plant operations achieve best-in-class performance. His impressive resume includes two IndustryWeek Best Plants awards; a Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing; and a Shingo Research and Professional Publications Award for his book "Liquid Lean: Developing Lean Culture in the Process Industries."

Jay Forrester – Forrester is an award-winning inventor, author and professor whose research at MIT in the late 1950s led to the modern notion of supply chain management. He is one of the inventors of the digital control of machine tools, receiving a patent for the numerical-control servo-system in 1962. A pioneer in early digital-computer development, Forrester, 93, is a professor emeritus of management at MIT's Sloan School of Management.

Alan (A.G.) Lafley – Lafley served as president and CEO of Procter & Gamble from 2000 to 2009, capping a three-decade career with the company. At a time when P&G's results had been slipping, Lafley in the 2000s focused the company on core businesses and brands; faster-growing and higher-margin beauty, grooming and health care businesses; and winning in developing markets. When Lafley retired in 2010, P&G had more than doubled its sales since the beginning of the decade; the company's portfolio of billion-dollar brands had grown from 10 to 22; and P&G's market capitalization had more than doubled. His successor, Bob McDonald, called Lafley "one of the greatest CEOs, if not the greatest CEO, in the history of P&G."

Gordon Moore – Moore co-founded Intel Corp. in 1968, along with fellow Fairchild Semiconductor alum Robert Noyce. Moore served as CEO of Intel from 1975 until 1987, and was named chairman emeritus in 1997. Moore is widely known for coming up with "Moore's Law" in 1965, in which he predicted that computing power would double every year (he later updated it to two years). Moore's Law, according to Intel, "has become the guiding principle for the semiconductor industry to deliver ever-more-powerful chips while decreasing the cost of electronics."

Richard Morely – Morley is best known as the father of the programmable logic controller. An engineer, author, inventor and consultant, Morley holds more than 20 U.S. and foreign patents, including patents for magnetic thin film, the hand-held terminal and the floppy disk. A member of the Automation Hall of Fame (a group that includes W. Edwards Deming), Morley has been a pioneer in the fields of computer design, artificial intelligence, automation, robotics/motors and technology trend forecasting.

Alan Mulally – Since taking over as president and CEO of Ford Motor Co. in September 2006, Mulally has led the automaker from the brink of bankruptcy to profitability, respectability and stability. However, he might always be best known for the fact that Ford said "no" to government bailout funds, thanks to the actions he took to finance a corporate restructuring two years prior to the recession. A former Boeing executive, Mulally has become the face of the auto industry's renaissance, and recently unveiled a bold strategy to increase Ford's global sales from 5.3 million vehicles in 2010 to 8 million by mid-decade.

John Shook – As an author, keynote speaker, former Toyota employee, and current chairman and CEO of the Lean Enterprise Institute, Shook has enthusiastically spread the principles of the Toyota Production System and lean manufacturing to operations throughout the world. Shook learned about lean management during his decade-long career with Toyota in Japan and the United States, and became the company's first American kacho (manager) in Japan. As co-author of the Shingo Prize-winning book "Learning to See," Shook helped introduce the world to value-stream mapping. The Lean Enterprise Institute describes Shook as "a true sensei."

SolidCAM announces the release of InventorCAM 2012, the latest version of its powerful CAM system, seamlessly integrated and with full associativity to Autodesk Inventor. InventorCAM 2012 launches the new revolutionary iMachining module, that reduces cycle times by up to 70% and increases tool life dramatically.

Autodesk Inventor users will be able to achieve dramatic increases in productivity for their CNC machining with InventorCAM 2012 due to its single-window integration in Inventor. InventorCAM provides the same look and feel in CAM as in CAD, greatly reducing the learning curve, enabling engineers to quickly generate efficient and safe toolpaths directly from the CAM toolbar, inside Autodesk Inventor.

The revolutionary iMachining technology in InventorCAM 2012 uses morphing spiral cuts and controlled step-over algorithms to enable tools to cut at their full depth, without suffering from shock loading or rubbing. Cutting at full depth helps to spread the load over the length of the tool, instead of the bottom few millimeters while, precise control of chip thickness, keeps cutting loads steady, enabling far greater metal removal rates to be achieved, even in hard materials.

Applications which require the use of small diameter tools benefit particularly from iMachining. Optimized feeds and speeds are automatically generated by the software’s technology wizard, taking into account the properties of the machine, tool, material, geometry and the user’s selected aggressiveness level for cutting. iRest and iFinish technologies are an integral part of this process, cutting the rest material with smaller and smaller cutters so that the final finish path can be cut at full depth and chatter free.

InventorCAM 2012 is powerful for its ability to drive multi-spindle and multi-turret mill-turn centers. InventorCAM 2012 takes advantage of iMachining for these applications to overcome the problems associated with low rigidity and over long tooling setups. By lowering the aggressiveness of cutting and utilizing the constant tool loading produced by iMachining, programmers can compensate for less than perfect cutting conditions, enabling the machine tool to achieve maximum efficiency and productivity in a collision free environment.

Simultaneous 5-axis milling, multi-sided indexing, high speed surface machining and 3D high speed surface machining in InventorCAM 2012 give engineers the ability to cut the most complex parts designed in Autodesk Inventor, while turning, mill-turn and wire EDM modules extend the software to program all the machines in the workshop.

Learning the software is easy - with an intuitive Autodesk Inventor like interface, experienced designers will quickly become proficient in InventorCAM 2012. Online tutorials provide 24/7 self-teach opportunities to make it easy to optimize CNC programming and machining productivity and are supplemented by the worldwide InventorCAM support network. InventorCAM 2012 helps companies designing in Autodesk Inventor, to rapidly generate fast and highly productive machining operations, resulting in reduced costs, shortened delivery times and higher quality and profitability.

While most of the work at Realize Inc. involves precision reproduction of engineered 3D models, the rapid prototyping company has expanded its services to include custom artistic projects where aesthetics are paramount.

"We're always excited when someone approaches us with a more free-form idea," said Todd Reese, President of Realize Inc. "It's a break from the norm, and gives us a chance to cut loose and let the imagination run."

Based near Indianapolis, Ind., Realize Inc. creates custom rapid prototypes of products for clients in numerous industries, including aerospace, biomedical and electronics. However, clients sometimes request a project that involves more of a creative flair. Reese says that demand for artistic projects at Realize is increasing and that they are now well positioned to take on more of this type of work.

Adam Poots, a creative director, designer and web developer who is creating a role-playing game/board game system, recently selected Realize to fabricate two ornately inscribed miniature books stacked on top of each other.

"It takes a very special combination of love and mastery in order to achieve what Realize Inc. has," Poots said. "The company is a powerhouse of titan class individuals who know how to push their technology to the very edge of its capability."

"Ever since I was old enough to hold a paint brush, I have been drawn to all things creative," Guernsey said. "Having the opportunity to help Realize expand into this arena will be very rewarding. I can't wait to showcase my abilities to complement our other services."

Founded in 1999, Realize has grown into one of the largest rapid prototyping companies in the Midwest. Customers use Realize to test product designs before undergoing the cost of full production. Services include Stereolithography, RTV molding and Cast Urethane Models, Industrial Design, Computer Aided Design and Custom Finishing and Painting.

Ever wonder where all those fantastic, odd and oddly useful consumer gadgets come from? Browsing the aisles of Target, K-Mart, Walmart and other major retailers, one marvels at the scope of imagination when it comes to products for the home, office, workshop and garage. For inventors and those who have big ideas of their own, home shopping shows and big-box stores are playgrounds of potential.

Now comes "Inventionland," a new reality-based TV special scheduled to debut on HISTORY on Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 12:00 p.m. EST. Shot on location, the Pittsburgh-based Inventionland is the headquarters for Davison Design & Development, founded by George Davison, the show's star.

"Inventionland" delves into the sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes exhilarating real-life drama of the high-risk world of inventing. The show follows three inventors as their respective inventions take shape. From the thrill of coming up with a big idea to the challenges involved in turning it into a functioning prototype and then into a money-making proposition or a trip back to the drawing board, it all begins and ends at Inventionland, America's largest invention factory.

* Stuck holding onto the umbrella during a breezy day at the beach while watching his young daughters have fun in the ocean without him, inventor Milton Branch envisions a beach cooler that firmly anchors an umbrella even on the windiest days. Find out if the project flies.

* Kurt Whiteside and 5,000 of his car mechanic customers around the country anxiously await the next generation of the Hover Creeper. But first this miracle of physics must pass the muster of NASCAR mechanic "Big A," who ultimately says, "Every fat guy should have one of these." Then Inventionland designers face a last-minute, nail-biting prototyping problem that requires Mr. D.'s expertise as an important celebration looms.

* Taking a cue from the original boom boxes of the 1980s, twenty-year-old Jason Ramsey has the idea for a new surround-sound, six-speaker wearable belt that will enable him to share music the old-fashioned way with his skateboarding friends at the park. There's only one problem, and it's a doozy.

Intertwined with these compelling invention stories are those of Inventionland's own creative captain, "Mr. D."—the one and only George Davison—and an eccentric cast of designers and builders. Jason Rogge configures each design team, balancing personalities and talent for what an invention needs; he's also the master deadline enforcer. Jarrod Campbell, the lone wolf known for his quick temper, never hesitates to speak his mind. The quintessential super-geek Clay Carlino is nonetheless a snob at heart. Lucky Schwartz, ever the skeptic, plays devil's advocate at every turn. Outdoorsman Curtis Wierman is part Grizzly Adams and part Turtle from Entourage. Tensions may flare, creative minds do clash and emotions run high, but in the end, the cast of characters' idiosyncrasies work in their favor, and the new inventions come to life.

George Davison says from Inventionland, "Whether we invent new products to ward off outside competition, or to fix a pressing problem, or to bring pleasure into new realms, there is a ravenous appetite among consumers for the new and innovative. And we do it all at Inventionland."

"Inventionland" is produced for HISTORY by JWM Productions. The producer is Jonathan Wyche. Patrice Shannon is the editor and the online editor is Brian Newell.

The Digi-Key Continuing Education Center is a free virtual training service created exclusively for electronic, design and test engineers. The program, designed by Design News, provides courses that allow engineers to increase their knowledge and network with peers and thought leaders.

"Digi-Key has actively sought business partnerships that allow us to provide product and complementary educational information to our customers," said Tony Harris, Digi-Key’s CMO. "The Digi-Key Continuing Education Center is a great asset to engineers who desire to increase their knowledge base. With increasing demands on engineers to create and produce quality technology, it is even more important for them to be able to access continuing education resources. We take pride in offering the most in-stock product available for immediate shipment as well as the resources and information necessary to make the engineer’s job easier."

The first course series - Microcontrollers, Basics - begins January 16, 2012 and will be presented by lecturer, Jon Titus, contributing technical editor for Design News, and Alexander Wolfe, Content Director for Design News.

"We are very pleased to be partnering with Digi-Key to bring this education to design engineers," said Alexander Wolfe. "I am overseeing the development and the courses to ensure that we are providing our audience with top-notch content. This education allows engineers to increase their engineering knowledge and stay current with key trends."

Future series include Microcontrollers, Advanced; Sensors; and Basic Industrial Control Processing.

ABB’s design concept for a small parts assembly robot, nicknamed FRIDA (Flexible Robot Industrial Dual Arm), has won the prestigious red dot "best of the best" product design award within the workplace category at this year's awards ceremony in Singapore.

The annual red dot award is a competition for design concepts and prototypes held annually in Singapore. The award is an internationally renowned seal of quality, judged by design industry heavyweights. The prestigious red dot "best of the best" award is presented to only the most outstanding design concepts.

This year, 3,536 projects from 54 countries were presented to the jury. After due deliberation, 252 concepts were awarded the red dot – 43 were honoured with the “red dot: best of the best” for outstanding design quality.

"Winning a red dot award is tremendously prestigious for us and we are honoured to receive this recognition of our work,” says Per-Vegard Nerseth, manager of ABB’s Robotics business unit. “ABB prides itself on developing leading edge and disruptive technologies. Our vision was to design a safe high-tech robot with innovative design features that allows it to work closely with humans. This global recognition of the ABB team's achievements fully endorses this approach and we will continue to work on developing this concept.”

InnovMetric Software Inc. announced that the latest intermediate release of the PolyWorks universal 3D metrology platform - V12.0.3 - can display on Apple mobile devices in real time laser-scanned points being captured, thanks to the new PolyWorks/Talisman app. Equipped with PolyWorks/Talisman and an Apple mobile device, laser scanning operators can get immediate visual and audio feedback right where they are, instead of having to go back to their computer, placing PolyWorks in the palm of your hand.

"PolyWorks/Talisman is a time-saving application for 3D metrology data capture. Some customers have already reported that it contributes to lowering the cost of measuring parts by more than 50%. Live laser scanning display is just one of many major productivity enhancement tools that we will introduce in the coming months," said Marc Soucy, president of InnovMetric Software.

PolyWorks/Talisman is free and available from the Apple App Store. For more information, visit: www.innovmetric.com

"Digi-Key is excited to launch Scheme-it, the industry's only fully-online schematic tool," said Tony Harris, chief marketing officer, Digi-Key Corporation. "With Scheme-it, engineers are able to easily create the blueprint for any design while gaining access to Digi-Key's expansive product listing in one online experience."

"Scheme-it is a new design tool that allows engineers, students, and enthusiasts to quickly create and share electronic schematics from directly within their web browser," said Joe Wolin, Aspen Labs.

Scheme-it runs natively in all major browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome, and does not require the use of browser plugins. Users must be registered to save designs on Scheme-it.

Z Corporation today announced it will sponsor "Reality Redesigned," a student-focused design competition and online reality show that will spawn daring new mountain bike designs created by inventive riders.

The show bills itself as "the ultimate design contest ... what happens when the biggest names in North American manufacturing, design and engineering throw open the doors and allow both mountain bikers and designers alike to have at it." In addition to entertainment, the episodes will serve as solid curriculum material for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teachers across North America.

The contest will spotlight the design process from drawing board to finished product. Z Corporation Technical Support Specialist and expert mountain bike rider Dave Mee will "ZPrint" prototypes of three finalists in three categories, in preparation for a showdown at the RAPID 2012 Conference May 22-25, 2012. The winner will be announced live at the Z Corporation booth. The winning design will then be manufactured and tested by a pro rider.

"Reality Redesigned" is produced by host and Executive Producer Jeremy Bout and others involved in "The Edge Factor Show," who are joining forces with Pinkbike, one of the top mountain bike sites in the world. Here's how it works:

Submissions (mid-December through Feb. 24, 2012). After registering for Pinkbike (free), contestants will place their submission into one of three categories.

Finals (May 22-25, 2012). At the RAPID 2012 Conference, three final designs will be displayed and judged, in three episodes shot with a live audience in the Z Corporation booth. The judging will include stringent and rigorous testing using finite element analysis (FEA) software and ZPrinted prototypes. The winner will be announced in the Z Corporation booth.

Epilogue: The winning design will be manufactured and tested by a pro rider.

"ZPrinting is a center-stage component of the show, inspiring innovation and bringing contestants' designs to reality," said Bout. "With physical models, judges and industry manufacturers can more deeply understand a design, and what it will be able to do on the trail. ZPrints will also expose students to technology they will use in their engineering careers."

"Reality Redesigned" is just one example of Z Corporation's ongoing commitment to education in addition to its EngineeringZONE™ program, sponsorships and education discounts.

Asiga announced the release of the world’s first low-cost high-resolution 3D printer. The printer, named the Pico, is tiny, having a 22cm footprint and weighing only 10kg. However, under the hood is a novel print engine based on Asiga’s proprietary “sliding separation” technology. The system has two build modes: 37.5 microns and 50 microns XY resolution; and the Z layer thickness is user selectable between 1 micron and 200 microns in 1 micron increments. The Pico is targeted at high-resolution digital manufacturing applications including the fabrication of dental models, crown and bridge casting patterns, jewelry, and hearing-aid shells.

Priced at US$6990, the Pico meets or exceeds the resolution of larger systems having ten-times the price.

The Pico is the first 3D printer to incorporate an ultraviolet 385nm LED light source with up to 50,000 hours life time. The ultraviolet light source allows the Pico to print in pure white and water-clear materials. As the light source never needs replacing, it offers consistent performance from print to print and reduces the cost of ownership, as the only consumables are the fabrication materials.

Asiga’s CTO Dr Ray Ericsson says the Pico is going to revolutionize many industries, particularly small businesses doing bespoke manufacturing. “There are many industries, including dental, hearing and jewelry, where the CAD design software is mature. The missing link that has prevented small businesses from fully engaging with these productivity enhancing tools is the high cost of tooling-grade resolution 3D printers. The Pico makes tooling-grade digital manufacturing affordable for everyone. This will result in significant productivity gains in may industries.”

Towson University’s College of Fine Arts and Communication, in partnership with the Department of Art + Design, Art History and Art Education, has established an on-campus Object Lab. The project received integral funding support from Marcia Welsh, interim president of Towson University.

Located in the Center for the Arts and managed by Associate Professor Jan Baum, the Object Lab is home to three-dimensional scanning and printing, laser cutting and CNC milling equipment.

The facility focuses on rapid prototyping and digital fabrication through reverse engineering, additive and subtractive prototyping and manufacturing technologies, and laser cutting.

Participating students will learn cutting-edge applications for industries that include aerospace and defense, consumer products, product development, prosthetics, dentistry, medicine, forensics, and art and design

Reverse engineering with three-dimensional scanning can digitize existing objects for manipulation and reproduction. For example, the technology can be used to scan an existing body part to make a matching prosthetic. Digitization can also be applied to dentistry, combat weapons, and other arenas, to determine how an object has failed and what is needed to improve performance.

Digital fabrication uses three-dimensional printers and milling machines to create parts and objects, directly applicable to rapid prototyping and manufacturing. Central to this technology is skill in three-dimensional modeling, which is taught alongside the lab.

Dynomax Inc., a leader in value-added engineering and high-precision machining, injection molding and tooling, has updated and expanded its micro molding and tooling machine fleet to better serve the tight tolerance requirements of its medical, aerospace and defense customers. Dynomax's increased capacity supports its commitment to meet the growing medical device market demand.

Dynomax's investment includes all-electric injection and insert molding machines employing 6-axis robots for repeatability of plus or minus 0.0001 inches, and micro injection units with 0.6 oz. shot sizes for near 100% accuracy and repeatability. The company also purchased several Swiss-style turning machines for manufacturing components from titanium, stainless steel and other metals, and enhanced EDM machines that employ advanced Swiss technology. The new machines can hold tolerances of plus or minus 0.0002 inches for micro injection molding and turning, and plus or minus 0.0001 inches for thin wall molding.

“Dynomax's high glass content thermoplastic and thermoset injection molding and tooling operations are supported by a vertically integrated engineering and manufacturing team, incorporating the latest design process technology for mold flow analysis,” said Walter Zic, Vice President of Operations. “By expanding and upgrading to over 35 cutting-edge machines, and utilizing cellular manufacturing and robotic machine tending, we are able to provide superior customer service and go from design to part in three weeks or less.”

Celebrating 25 years of excellence, demand for Dynomax's contract manufacturing services has also grown. The company has experienced tremendous growth recently, having added two new facilities and over 100 employees in the past two years. Its molding and tooling operations are located in Mundelein, Illinois.

An ISO 9001:2008, AS9100 Rev C and ITAR registered company, Dynomax is a leading designer and manufacturer of high-precision machined components, injection molding and tooling, sub-assemblies, specialty machines and machine tool spindles. From early stage production through dockside ready components, Dynomax develops fully integrated solutions that enable its customers to improve their competitive advantage. Its customers include some of the largest names in the aerospace, defense, medical, transportation and energy industries.

As Seen On TV, Inc., the parent company of TVGoods, Inc., held a Pitch Tank event in Tampa, FL over the weekend of December 10th and 11th.

Pitch Tank is marketed to entrepreneurs and inventors as a platform to introduce and demonstrate businesses and/or products to the As Seen On TV, Inc. team, including Kevin Harrington. The event includes real training from Kevin Harrington on how to take your business or product from an idea to reality, including information on development and marketing. Covered topics include mass marketing, branding, intellectual property, manufacturing, ecommerce, web design, and all the latest marketing trends and strategies. Distribution channel strategy is also a key area of focus, including television shopping channels, infomercials and the Internet.

In addition to assisting and training the participants, the As Seen On TV, Inc. team was exposed to several businesses and products that it will continue to evaluate and monitor, with the hopes of partnering in the future. The company looks forward to hosting its next Pitch Tank event in a different city within the next 90 days.

"Pitch Tank has already turned into a profitable department for As Seen On TV, Inc. The company is able to use its expertise to be able to monetize the thousands of inventor submissions we get annually," said Steve Rogai, CEO of As Seen On TV, Inc.

"Last weekend's Pitch Tank event surpassed our expectations. It was successful for both the entrepreneurs and inventors in attendance and our company. There are tons of amazing people in this world, people with a lot of talent, skill and great ideas. Unfortunately, many of these amazing people struggle because they have no direction. I get approached daily from people with great ideas, and many have done a lot of work on those ideas. People show me prototypes, market research data and some have even begun selling their products or ideas. Every one of these people have a few pieces of the puzzle, but the one thing that they are all lacking is knowledge on how to complete the puzzle; and Pitch Tank gives them that knowledge," said Kevin Harrington, Chairman of As Seen On TV, Inc.

As Seen On TV, Inc. is the parent company of TVGoods, Inc., a direct response marketing company. We identify, develop and market consumer products for global distribution via TV, Internet and retail channels. TVGoods was established by Kevin Harrington, a pioneer of direct response television.

Engineering Technology Associates, Inc. (ETA) is pleased to announce the availability of Version 5.8.1, of its complete die system simulation solution, DYNAFORM ™. This latest release promises to deliver a robust environment for engineers to simulate and analyze the entire die system. The FEA software solution guides the engineer through a wide range of stages in the manufacturing process, from cost estimation and die face design to formability analysis and stamping process simulation.

Some of the most significant enhancements in this version are delivered through DYNAFORM’s Die Face Engineering (DFE) module. DFE now offers the capacity to parametrically build die faces for a symmetrical part. Therefore, after the user defines the symmetry line, the program can automatically build the die faces for the other half of the symmetrical part accordingly.

Also notable, a ‘new product change replacement’ feature was added in 5.8.1. It allows the user to retain the current die face design and simply drop in new product design surfaces, saving the user a great deal of time while providing greater flexibility.

Finally, a new ‘Auto Mesh’ option was added in DFE and allows the user to automatically mesh the CAD model immediately after it has been imported.

The Blank Size Engineering (BSE) module was also enhanced in the latest round of development. The module was significantly improved upon by way of a streamlined guided user interface (GUI). New dialogues within the GUI contain tabbed menus for easy navigation between functions.

CadSoft Computer GmbH, today announced the launch of version 6 of its easy-to-use ‘EAGLE’ PCB software for professional board design.

CadSoft EAGLE Version 6 focuses on flexibility and enabling users to save time by optimizing and integrating new features such as BGA escape routing, differential pair routing, automatic meanders and undo/redo logs. Additionally this latest software provides automatic layout dimension, assembly variants, cut out polygons, and the design reuse feature to merge board/schematic pairs using the PASTE function with full consistency.

EAGLE Version 6 not only helps in the design of a board, but also saves designers time by providing direct connections to experienced, high-quality PCB manufacturers for fast quotes on PCB fabrication. In North America customers can connect with Pentalogix, for European customers Eurocircuits is your reliable partner to get your prototype produced by mouse click, through The Knode on element14.

Flexibility and productivity are also achieved through User Language Programs (ULPs) for customization and feature enhancement, such as 3D-visualization, simulation and data-export. Hundreds of ULPs, project designs and part libraries to accelerate the design process are available through CadSoft EAGLE’s download centre.

CadSoft EAGLE users can also benefit in their design process from Accelerated Design’s Ultra Librarian to quickly create parts, symbols and footprints that can be exported to various PCB design flows. The Ultra Librarian tools integrate Premier Farnell’s DesignLink, an integrated tool, which offers a streamlined method to do component research by allowing a designer to transparently interface to the search engine of their regional supplier without leaving the design environment.

“This is a landmark day for our award-winning CadSoft EAGLE PCB software with the launch of version 6,” said Thomas Liratsch, CadSoft’s General Manager. “EAGLE v6.0 will make the lives of design engineers even easier – saving them time and effort. Simply put, the new release of EAGLE takes designer friendliness and freedom to a whole new experience.”

Success through innovation and cutting edge technology has been the driving goal of Flintshire-based company At 3D-Squared Limited, and this was fully recognized last week when the firm scooped the ‘Clogau Gold Growth through Innovation’ award at the Achievement Wales 2011 awards ceremony in Bangor. This accolade comes after At 3D-Squared won the 2011 Flintshire Business Award for Innovation in October, earlier this year. Winning this award was not a given, At 3D-Squared had to fight off some tough competition but the innovative work the company has undertaken with 3D Printing technologies shone through.

Andrew Allshorn, Managing Director of At 3D-Squared in no way expected to win, but was absolutely delighted to be presented with the award by TV Newsreader, Nicholas Owen. Commenting on the night, Mr Allshorn said, “I am a product designer by trade and was up against some really tough businesses, so it is just amazing to win.”

He continued, “I travel a lot in Europe and this has made me realize tonight that I could be doing so much more right here in North Wales — there are so many great businesses, like Airbus, right on our doorstep that could benefit from having innovative technologies like 3D printing locally. And with Deeside being made an Enterprise Zone there are great opportunities to do more, it’s really positive. This award is amazing, a real honour.”

3D printing technology is relatively new and in the 20+ years since it was first commercialised as a prototyping method the developments have been tremendous. It now presents product development, engineering and manufacturing companies in many different industry sectors with an alternative production method for parts and components, as well as speeding up the development process itself. With a wealth of 3D printing technology expertise and experience, At 3D-Squared offers a full strategic consultancy service as well as a direct maintenance & support service for companies with 3D printing machines in-situ. Clients of At 3D-Squared include Formula 1 teams, aerospace companies, auto makers, jewellers and R&D facilities amongst many others.

At 3D-Squared is also the company behind the development of the Metalise it … process. This unique process enables plastic models — often 3D printed — to be plated with a range of different metal finishes and is now offered to clients via At 3D-Squared’s sister company 3DDC Limted.

The Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF) announces the opening of registration for MIM2012, an international conference on injection molding of metals, ceramics, and carbides, to be held March 19–21, 2012, at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina, San Diego, California. The conference, co-sponsored by the Metal Injection Molding Association, a trade association of MPIF, and its affiliate APMI International, also offers an optional one-day tutorial on powder injection molding (PIM).

With a focus on "designing MIM parts and materials for performance and value," this specialized conference is targeted at engineers, product designers, manufacturers, consumers, researchers, educators, and students who have an interest in the application of powder injection molding. It features over 20 presentations as well as a tabletop exhibition and networking reception.

The PIM industry, comprised of MIM (metal injection molding), CIM (ceramic injection molding), and CCIM (cemented carbide injection molding), has sales estimated at over $1 billion and could possibly double over the next five years. The industry has realized major technological advances and overcome numerous business challenges. The objective of the conference is to continue to explore these advances, assist in the transfer of technology, and investigate new developments in the field of powder injection molding of metals, ceramics, and carbides.

Quickparts® assisted PediaVision® with the development and production of Spot, a wireless, handheld vision screening device that is easy to use and can capture results in less than one second.

PediaVision® is a medical device company providing comprehensive vision assessment technology to adults and children as young as 6 months old. Their latest innovation, Spot, is a patent-pending technology that can assess a child’s vision quickly, and objectively, eliminating the subjective analysis that results from many of today's vision screening tools.

With the demand for Spot outpacing traditional manufacturing techniques, PediaVision® sought a vendor that could meet demanding lead times and offer safety grade materials, without sacrificing quality. They ultimately turned to Quickparts® for pre-production cast urethane parts, and Quickparts® was able to deliver safety grade parts with production tolerances, all within the required lead time.

“Quickparts allowed us to test production quality prototypes months before traditional tooling would allow,” said Jeff Lammers, Lead Engineer at PediaVision®. “We got to market faster and the pre-production prototypes were exactly what we needed. Rapid prototyping allowed us to compress our schedule by 3-6 months.”

Called MAKE: AN AMERICAN MANUFACTURING MOVEMENT, the strategy maps how the United States can lead the world in 21st century advanced manufacturing that will be at the heart of our nation's long-term productivity and prosperity.

Under the leadership of Council Chairman and Deere & Company Chairman and CEO Samuel Allen and a steering committee of 60 CEOs, university presidents, labor leaders, and laboratory directors, MAKE will be released to Congress, the White House, and all 50 governors. The recommendations are the result of hundreds of interviews conducted over nearly three years by Deloitte, as well as dozens of dialogues where Council members and national thought leaders came together to discuss specific manufacturing topics.

The Council on Competitiveness, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit, non-partisan organization whose membership consists exclusively of corporate CEOs, presidents of universities, and heads of labor unions, will celebrate its 25th Anniversary and host its National Manufacturing Competitiveness Summit on December 7-8th. The Council provides policy recommendations to make America more competitive in the international market place.

Media partners include U.S. News and World Report, IndustryWeek, Popular Science, Scientific American, Manufacturing Executive, and CNBC. The popular CNBC show Street Signs with Brian Sullivan will be filmed on-location to pose questions to c-suite speakers and guests. Adding to our esteemed list of participants will be panel moderators such as Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post columnist; Rana Foroohar, Assistant Managing Editor for Time Magazine; Brian Kelly, Editor for U.S. News and World Report; Mark Jannot, Editor-in-Chief for Popular Science; and Patricia Panchak, IndustryWeek Chief Editor.

The Watson Kiosk – IBM's high performance computing system that matched wits earlier this year with America's brightest on the game of Jeopardy!® – will appear. Attendees will experience the latest technology in additive manufacturing – live, 3D printing at the cutting-edge of 21st century customized manufacturing and a specialized modeling computer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

CCE announces the immediate availability of an updated version of its CAT5Works product that supports the latest version of SolidWorks.

CAT5Works is a bi-directional SolidWorks/CATIA data translator, which enables CATIA file translation from within SolidWorks. The latest version of CAT5Works is compatible with SolidWorks 2009 through 2012 on 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 systems.

For centuries, America has been an engine of invention and innovation, creating the technology that has shaped world history. From Ben Franklin to the Wright Brothers; Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs, this country has been a consistent generator of revolutionary ideas. Today many Americans, in basements and backyards around the country, are trying to turn their dreams into the next big thing.

INVENTION USA, a new HISTORY series that premieres Friday, December 9, 10pm ET/9C follows Reichart Von Wolfshield and Dr. Garrett Lisi, innovators and scientists with ties to investors, as they go in search of the next breakthrough invention. Whether they're traveling the country to visit backyard inventors at home, or meeting inventors at their Los Angeles testing lab, Reichart and Garrett will put prototypes to the test and give a tough, no-nonsense evaluation of the invention’s potential. If they like what they see, it can mean the Inventor will get the investment they'll need to help bring the product to market. In every case, the stakes are high: a dream is on the line, and the next idea they see could change someone's life...and even the world.

Their adventures are chronicled in INVENTION USA which celebrates not only America’s knack for invention but also its entrepreneurial spirit. As Garrett and Reichart see it, one is meaningless without the other – and these two know quite a lot about bringing pioneering new products to the marketplace. As Garrett and Reichart travel the country meeting with inventors, if they agree that there’s revenue potential in an invention, they will use their considerable collective experience – in consumer products, marketing, science and design – and make that invention come to life, and ultimately to the marketplace.

INVENTION USA doesn’t focus solely on the inventions. The 6-episode series also takes a fascinating look at the inventors themselves, some of whom have sacrificed it all, including money and marriages, to make their creations a reality. Some inventions are brilliant, some batty; and some simply both! There’s “The Fireball,” a non-lethal weapon that uses modified paintballs to deter wild animal attacks, a product the inventor claims was inspired by his run-in with Bigfoot. There’s the “Phone Glove,” a cell phone that’s not exactly hands free, given that it’s built into a winter glove. Also Easy Down, a potential life-saving invention inspired by the events on 9/11; and “Roscoe: One Bad Bird” – a new “weapon” in the battle to keep pesky pigeons away. Which of these and many other items will meet with Garrett and Reichart’s approval? The stakes couldn’t be higher for the inventors.

Garrett is an American theoretical physicist best known for "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything," a unified field theory combining particle physics with Einstein's theory of gravitation. Born in Los Angeles and raised in San Diego, California, Lisi received bachelor’s degrees with highest honors in physics and mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a doctorate in physics from the University of California, San Diego. After moving to the island of Maui, Lisi balanced his efforts between physics research, scientific consulting, and surfing. His work has been featured in many academic, popular, and online publications.

Reichart has produced over 120 consumer products and pioneered dozens of technologies over the past 30 years including one of the first multiplayer video games, co-designed the first set-top computer, created Disney's Animation Studio software, designed slot machines for Vegas, Toys for Mattel, and weapons for the Defense Department. From their Laboratory nicknamed "The Barn" Garrett and Reichart evaluate and test an array of newly developed prototypes for the series.

INVENTION USA is produced for HISTORY by T Group Productions. Matthew Ginsburg and Charles Nordlander are Executive Producers for HISTORY. Executive Producers for T Group are Jenny Daly, Gunnar Wetterberg and Jason Sklaber.

With the addition of an iPro 8000 SLA Production Printer, Realize Inc. continues to emerge as a leader in the rapid prototyping industry.

"The 8000 gives us more large part capacity," said Todd Reese, President of Realize. "It also allows us to expand our material offerings for large pieces."

Based near Indianapolis, Realize creates customized rapid prototypes of products for clients in numerous industries, including consumer electronics, automotive, health care and education. The company has created prototypes for a vast variety of products -- from gaming figurines to wind tunnel automobile models and intricate machine parts.

Customers use these prototypes for design verification; they can use the custom model created at Realize to determine if their design is valid before incurring the expense of going into full production.

Realize has become a national leader in Stereolithography (SLA), which involves using lasers to selectively and successively cure thin layers of specialized liquid resins -- creating a precise, custom prototype reproduction of the 3D modeled design. The company's new iPro 8000 is a state-of-the-art SLA machine that increases the company's production capacity, including the ability to react more quickly to aggressive delivery requests.

Realize now has a total of 11 Stereolithography machines in its SLA lab, each affectionately named after a supermodel. These machines include seven Viper SLA systems, two SLA-5000 Systems, the iPro 8000 and an iPro 9000. While the iPro and SLA-5000 systems handle larger parts, the smaller Viper systems can reproduce small parts with extremely fine detail, and are capable of a high resolution mode that can reproduce even finer detail.

"We have the latest technology," said Tonya Reese, Chief Financial Officer of Realize. "That's something that sets us apart from many of our competitors."

Founded in 1999, Realize, respected as a premier rapid prototyping company, is one of the industry's largest companies in the Midwest. Other Realize services include Industrial Design, Computer Aided Design, Rubber Molding & Urethane Casting (RTV), and Custom Finishing and Painting.

James Dyson believes that creativity and innovation are related to discovery and exploring the world in a hands-on way.

That's why the James Dyson Foundation has teamed up with Science World to create a North American first: the Engineering Lab by the James Dyson Foundation, which opens free to the public on Saturday, December 3rd - as part of a Dyson-sponsored free admission day.

"Inventing and creating must be encouraged and Canada has a wonderful legacy of engineering and innovative research and development. From the creation of the epic Trans-Canada railway and highway; to the invention of insulin, IMAX films, revolutionizing air and public transit through Bombardier, technology advances and the list goes on," explains James Dyson.

"Science World is a wonderful place and it's been great fun to collaborate with them to create the Engineering Lab. We hope it will help inspire Canada's young inventors, engineers and designers of the future to continue to be curious about the world. That is the most essential element of innovation," says James.Engineering Fascinating

The Engineering Lab by the James Dyson Foundation that's on-site at Science World features an irresistible tangle of tall tubes and valves that encourage experimentation with air flow.

Brightly coloured scarves are sucked into the apparatus, and children can turn and direct valves to change the route the scarves take before they are vaulted out of clear plastic tubes at the top. In the process they learn about cause, effect and engineering principles.

The Engineering Lab also features an Interactive Classroom where children learn about velocity, gravity and other important engineering principles. Activities include building spaghetti bridges, marble runs and even constructing their very own geodesic dome.

For families and educators who can't make it to Science World British Columbia to see the live exhibit, the James Dyson Foundation offers an interactive companion site at www.jamesdysonfoundation.com/scienceworld that's filled with activities, scientific facts and more.

My Robot Nation™, a pioneer in bridging creativity and emerging technologies, today announced the official launch of the world's first consumer-friendly digital-to-actual 3D creation service, just in time for the holidays!

My Robot Nation™ allows anyone, regardless of artistic or computer skills, to quickly and easily create their own totally unique custom robot collectible online, then have it made real with full-color 3D printing and delivered to their door!

With an engaging and easy-to-use interface designed by veteran game industry creatives, My Robot Nation leverages its proprietary (patents pending) online browser technology with WebGL™ 3D graphics to provide a fun and playful creation process that allows everyone to instantly access the exciting, futuristic power of 3D printing.

My Robot Nation is a champion of revolutionary technology that facilitates creativity, as first recognized by Google® when the service was featured as an exclusive Beta on the Google® Chrome® Web Store. My Robot Nation brings a new sense of high-tech cool to this holiday season, combining technology with personal creativity in a completely accessible way. In preparation for the holidays, My Robot Nation has included a gifting option that allows you to make a present of the creation experience. This holiday season, give your favorite people something utterly unique: a custom robot collectible they design themselves, then can hold in their hand – a taste of the future of personalized manufacturing made possible through 3D printing.

"As a fangeek of all things future-tech, I'm blown away by My Robot Nation," said Bob Goodman, Emmy Award-winning writer-producer of Warehouse 13™, Batman® Beyond, Justice League® and Batman: The Animated Series. "The idea that you can design your own robot – and they'll 3D print it and mail it to you in a matter of days – is incredible. The interface is easy and intuitive, and the design is gorgeous and fun – it's a killer app for 3D printing!"

Once created, each robot is showcased online in the My Robot Nation gallery, where a community of creators can share and compare designs, "like" and promote robots, and share robot photos on Facebook®, Twitter®, and Google+. Users can even repurpose shared designs from other members as a starting place to create their own robots and add to their Robot Nation. News, featured robots and special promotions are tweeted regularly from @myrobotnation on Twitter.

"At My Robot Nation, we believe that everyone is creative, and everyone can create – we all just need a fun and easy way to get started. YouTube®, Facebook and Twitter show us how creative everyone can be digitally – we're giving people an amazing new way to bring that creativity into the real world," said Sarah W. Stocker, co-founder of My Robot Nation. "Robots are only the beginning – the My Robot Nation platform is designed to be flexible and allow for the creation and customization of objects of any type. 3D printing is a revolution in creation – we want everyone to have access to it!"

"WebGL allows us to create and manipulate 3D objects right in your Chrome browser in real-time – something that was previously only possible in PC applications or consoles games. We're using that power and flexibility to connect people with real-world object creation through 3D printing, one of the most potentially world-changing emerging technologies," said Mark Danks, co-founder of My Robot Nation.

As part of its launch, My Robot Nation is offering limited-edition holiday robot designs for the gift-giving season – it's the ultimate, unique holiday gift! Pricing details and videos showcasing the robot creation process can be found at www.myrobotnation.com and through the My Robot Nation app on the Chrome Web Store.

Top Systems, the leading developer of advanced parametric design software, has announced the release of version 12 of its T-FLEX CAD® system.

Significant improvements in both 3D modeling and 2D drafting in the latest version accelerate the design process with various productivity enhancements, optimized technology of parametric assemblies that is helpful for quick design modifications, as well as more convenient operations with complex and large assembly models. The new version offers improved tools for simulation and efficient team collaboration.

T-FLEX CAD 12 with its new architectural solutions provides serious improvements of stability, quality, and performance of the application. It includes hundreds of enhancements to the quality of the application and has improved performance achieving gains up to 10 times and more at some time and resource consuming operations.

The new graphics engine is based on modern architecture and leverages the capabilities of modern graphics cards. Operations with data were optimized, thus significantly reducing the amount of used memory, providing convenient work with much larger models on the same hardware.

“Users will immediately feel the impact of the new modeling and graphics architecture that makes the overall productivity much faster”, commented Sergey Kozlov, Chief Technology Officer of Top Systems. “The enhancements in T-FLEX CAD 12 further expand its unmatched ability to make extremely difficult tasks possible for the end users”, he added.

New object-oriented mechanism of 3D manipulators helps to control elements of the models providing functionality for rapid changes in the projects. The new 3D sections significantly simplify assembly modeling allowing users to continue operations with objects within the clipped areas.

The all-new command for modeling pipelines meets the challenges of cabling and piping design.

Many modeling operations, including blending, extrusion, sweeping, deformation, local geometry modifications have new additional features and options based on the use of the latest version of Parasolid kernel.

Tools for parametric assemblies got further development. In T-FLEX CAD 12 it is possible to change parameters of parts at any level from the upper assembly. This eliminates the need to pass parameters through all levels of assembly for parametric control. Adaptive “smart” fragments allow users to seamlessly incorporate design intent into their assemblies. Execution of arbitrary macro when inserting a part was implemented. Macro can be programmed for a specific algorithm to insert custom entities improving intuitiveness and adding a variety of additional functionality.

The new mechanism for part alignment with specific bindings to floor, walls, ceiling, and horizontal surfaces by mechanism of connectors is very helpful for interior designs. The possibility of modifying external variables in the model by means of manipulators adds flexibility for parameters control. Inserting and editing of parts was noticeably accelerated.

Mechanism for creating BOM tables and placing was greatly enhanced receiving an automatic option. Functionality for creating 2D documentation was expanded. Tools for creating leader notes and GD&T symbols got new functionality, improved interface, and support for 3D. Section views now have additional features. Database access functions were completely redesigned. New mechanism of grouping elements significantly accelerated selection of elements in a variety of operations.

New features were added to T-FLEX CAM and T-FLEX Analysis - fully integrated into T-FLEX CAD applications that offer completely parametric functionally for CNC machining and finite-element simulation.